Lorrie Kim > Quotes

“It is no wonder that Snape is feeling the strain of being the only one who can help Draco, the only one who can fight some forms of Dark Magic, the only one who can retain Voldemort’s trust while taking his place at Dumbledore’s right hand. In some ways, it’s a bit similar to being the Chosen One, although Harry gets credit for his sacrifices and the blessing of a clean conscience. Snape’s job depends upon his guilty past and upon the secrecy that ensures his sacrifices will never be seen.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“That’s why Snape’s eyes were fixed on Nagini in her enchanted sphere while Voldemort was going on about the Elder Wand. He was not afraid for his own life. He just knew the moment had come. He would have to put a stopper in death until he gave Harry his final message.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Draco cast Expelliarmus. He could have, should have, attacked, but he disarmed, instead, and then attacked no further. The effort Snape has poured into this boy for the past six years has been worth it. He will not split his soul by killing. Covertly, against the efforts of Lucius, Bellatrix, and Voldemort, Snape has taught Draco non-aggression. He has fulfilled two of his three vows to Narcissa: he has watched over Draco and protected him from harm.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Draco’s wand turns out to work well for Harry, “at least as well as Hermione’s had done.” (HP/DH, 520) The wand recognizes Harry’s and Draco’s magic as equivalent. This wand has cast Expelliarmus at a wizard of great power and then been taken in a disarming move by a wizard whose signature magic is Expelliarmus. It is an easy transfer of wand allegiance from Draco to Harry, prompted in large part by a recognition of interchangeability.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Killing Curse, lingering and unpredictable. Dumbledore and Draco raised this magic together in their face-off at the tower. Draco disarmed Dumbledore rather than attacking, and once Dumbledore was wandless, cast no further spells against him. Dumbledore neither counterattacked nor defended himself, taking that time, unbeknownst to Draco, to freeze Harry in place. Draco learned that Dumbledore thought him and his family worth protecting—worth dying for. That magic joined with Snape’s grief and healing magic after Draco’s Sectumsempra wounds to create a young Death Eater who felt too much connection to others to be a killer. Draco had overpowered the greatest wizard of the age using Expelliarmus, the defensive spell that Snape taught Draco and Harry to use against each other so they could hate without harm. The Elder Wand recognized this magic in Draco as akin to Dumbledore’s in strength and willingly changed allegiance.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Look at me. With those words, Rowling completes the incantation for the stupendous magic she has cast over seven books with her creation of Severus Snape. Everything about Snape is contained in those three words. The spy who longed for nothing more than to be seen. The double agent who killed the mentor who was the last person to see his true self. The ugly boy who grew up into a man so ugly that students couldn’t look upon him without revulsion. The master of Occlumency who was sealed shut so tightly, his eyes looked dead. The Master of Death who didn’t need a cloak to be invisible, completing his second chance at life, removing his disguise and meeting Death as a friend.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“When it’s finally safe for him to give in to the visions of Voldemort’s surroundings, he sees the same light that he saw at the beginning of his sixth year, coming late to school after being attacked on the Hogwarts Express: “Voldemort was at the gates of Hogwarts; Harry could see him standing there, and see too the lamp bobbing in the pre-dawn, coming closer and closer.” (HP/DH, 499) Snape is coming to let Voldemort in. After nearly 500 pages of absence, he reenters the story. Now that Harry has learned Occlumency, now that Voldemort fears contact with Harry’s mind and isn’t aware that Harry can see his thoughts, it is safe for Snape and Harry to connect again. Snape cannot be certain that Harry has mastered Occlumency, but he knows that Voldemort will never again read Harry’s thoughts, and he knows what it looks like in Harry’s mind when Harry reads Voldemort’s thoughts. He must suspect that when Voldemort looks at him, Harry might see him, too. The light coming closer and closer is to welcome in Harry as well as Voldemort. Harry and Snape have closed in on Voldemort from either side. From this moment, Voldemort is doomed.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“One of Rowling’s most sophisticated points is that naïve teen political choices can have major, even lifelong repercussions on one’s romantic and family future. Snape has no romance in his life and never will, for three reasons. On his first chance, he destroyed his own prospects and faith in himself when he repelled the love of his life with his hateful politics, which eventually brought about her death. On his second chance, he will atone for this with undercover work that makes romance too risky. Thirdly, he would have had a difficult time attracting romance in any case because life is painfully—agonizingly—unfair to the homely.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Dumbledore had never been able to turn either Tom Riddle or Snape away from Dark Magic when they were students, but he lived long enough to see that Snape’s teaching reached Draco.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“with Dumbledore but with a literary figure from a different novel: Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, which Rowling once named as one of her top 10 recommended books for young readers. (Higgins, 2006) Scout, the narrator, remembers Atticus as “the bravest man who ever lived.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“The moment has arrived. Snape’s Time-Turner journey is complete. This is his second chance. He has been a double agent for years, working to protect Harry Potter. But if he kills Dumbledore—if he can kill his friend and mentor, the one living person who knows the full truth about the good self he’s been hiding under his spy façades—if he can bring himself to break his last remaining mirror, committing to live the rest of his dangerous life being thought a murderer and traitor—then he will be upholding his vow to protect Draco in addition to Harry Potter. He will be able to save more than one innocent life.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Dumbledore also knew he could trust Snape to be the rightful owner of the Elder Wand because with all powerful magical objects, Snape handles them without greed, not for personal gain but to protect others. In his third year, Harry saw that his Invisibility Cloak, one of the Deathly Hallows, worked perfectly for Snape because Snape was using it in the belief that he would protect children from murderers. Dumbledore, in contrast, says he once borrowed the Cloak from Harry’s father “out of vain curiosity, and so it could never have worked for me as it works for you, its true owner.” (HP/DH, 720) The sword of Gryffindor cannot be owned but presents itself of its own volition to worthy Gryffindors, yet it permitted Snape to handle it.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“He accepts personal responsibility for an endangered young one. That is more than what a teacher would do. This is a vow that will change him.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“No matter what strife there has been between Harry and Snape, they have loved and been loved by the same person. They both contain traces of Lily’s magic.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“love for Lily that first made him feel that someone else’s life was more important to him than his own.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“This scene is cringe-worthy and heartbreaking. Twelve years of wrongful imprisonment, followed by two and a half years as a fugitive, have kept Sirius in a state of arrested development. Snape has had the freedom denied Sirius, but when threatened by his least favorite bully from his past, he regresses to taunting Sirius about something that Gryffindors find intolerable: forced inactivity during crisis. Yet there is beauty in both men in this scene, too. Harry sees someone who cares about nothing in the world more than Harry’s happiness and is willing to fight for it. Snape gives Sirius a genuine warning.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Perhaps it will eventually sink in for Draco that a teacher thinks he matters enough to be worth dying for. It’s the highest form of life debt: I would die for you and your loved ones.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Rowling gives us a clue in the chapter title: “Snape’s Worst Memory.” We don’t see the whole memory, but for her to give it that title, we can assume that we have seen most or all of what we need to know. Snape is not the one who labels the memory this way; the chapter title is a message from author to reader. The bullying is bad, but Snape has been through worse: these same people almost killed him. The sexual humiliation is bad, but that’s not it, either, or the scene would not have cut off before the attempt to remove Snape’s pants. Rowling is showing that it was Snape’s own response to Lily that makes this his worst memory.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Snape curated these memories specifically for Harry. The memory showed Harry the second halves of the letter and photo—he must have intended to remind Harry of the experience of encountering the first halves. Harry had picked up several pieces of paper before finding the crumpled letter that started, “Dear Padfoot.” The letter was a combination report of quotidian and revolutionary life. Harry learned that his first-year flying lesson was not his first time on a broom,”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“As a teacher, Snape finds Umbridge irrelevant. As an outsider bearing down on the strategy that he and Dumbledore have developed to fight Voldemort, however, he finds her presence nearly intolerable.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“The fantasy of going back in time to change something regrettable is universal but impossible. We can only understand what happened and learn to tolerate it; we can’t change the past. But when we see history repeating itself and we must choose not to interfere, that’s a different story. As Snape has found, the urge to interfere can overpower reason. The ability to overcome this urge is essential for experienced time travelers: that is, adults, parents, teachers, or anyone who has had to learn that each generation will make its own mistakes.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Voldemort cannot kill Harry with any wand because in order for the Killing Curse to work, the caster has to mean it, and Voldemort doesn’t realize that he identifies with Harry too much, sees too much of Harry’s humanity, to kill him the same way he has killed others. But just in case, Harry—and the author—derive some support from the connection that the hawthorn wand and the Elder Wand now have. The Elder Wand has submitted to disarmament from the hawthorn wand once before. Harry is conscious of drawing on that parallel history as he casts his signature magic using Draco’s wand (emphasis mine).”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“As painful as it is to be seen falsely, such concerns recede compared to the emotion of wishing to protect someone—or grieving the failure to protect them.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Snape and Dumbledore are equally clear that they fight for the rights of Muggle-borns, just as Snape and Dumbledore both sacrificed the chance to save their own lives because they used their last moments to protect Harry instead.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Lupin asks the students to reveal the thing they fear the most. Neville’s reply is “Professor Snape.” Lupin then instigates collective mockery of Snape using a sexist, ageist image that the students would never have come up with on their own.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Dumbledore wanted the Elder Wand to recognize the mercy and regret in Snape’s Killing Curse and transfer allegiance to Snape, quietly. He knew he could trust Snape to be a good custodian of the Elder Wand, since Snape’s signature magic is purely defensive: when he has to force himself to attack or use Dark Magic, it’s only in order to protect others, then immediately dropped.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Just as Snape created a classroom atmosphere in which his Slytherins were “excited” at the prospect of a classmate’s failure, humiliation, and fear for his pet, Lupin has gotten a roomful of pubescent Gryffindors to engage in collective sexual ridicule behind a Slytherin teacher’s back, including the alarming word “forced.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Surely even Snape-hating Gryffindors enjoyed the moment Snape turned to face Umbridge. Rowling carefully unites the sentiments of Slytherins, Gryffindors, and the reader behind Snape for this scene: even Umbridge can find no fault with Snape’s academic standards. His classroom manner has indisputably caused damage, but his students have put in the labor. One way or another, together, he and the students have created something unassailable by this intruder.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Now, he can protect a child he likes for the sake of a father who respects him and a mother who knows the enormity of what she's asking him. The gratification he generates from protecting Draco will give him more momentum to extend the same protection to Harry. Thanks”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading

“Hermione has always been ready to be the vessel that receives Snape’s thoughts. She knows precisely what Snape needs; the flask she conjures is even the perfect size.”
― Lorrie Kim, Snape: A Definitive Reading